Monday, 29 November 2010

After his hiatus from the criminally underrated (though still far from perfect) Halloween III: Season of the Witch, Michael Myers, at the behest of his fans – and greedy producers – returned to stalk the leafy streets of Haddonfield in Halloween IV: The Return of Michael Myers. See what they did there. With a whole new set of characters introduced, including Laurie Strode’s daughter and her adoptive family, it isn’t long before the blood begins to flow.

For a film bogged down in its own lack of imagination, originality or flair, Halloween IV actually begins with so much promise. The opening titles play out over a simple collection of shots which when viewed in succession evoke such a bleak, eerie and overwhelmingly creepy atmosphere. The lack of music adds to the unease – all that exists on the soundtrack is a low howling wind that reeks of desolation and despair. Before long, the faintest strains of Alan Howarth’s deliciously dark and brooding synth score can gradually be heard; though at this stage, it’s still just a throbbing echo under the noise of the desolate wind, rippling across the sparse, strangely empty locations and fading light of these opening moments.
With such a barren, hopeless mood conjured in these opening minutes, all seems well! So far so good. Then the film actually starts. Sadly, as soon as this happens and Myers makes his grand entrance, its back to pilfering and pillaging the memory of the original Halloween.

As the film progresses, the American Gothic mood pregnant with foreboding established during the credits, is lost under the weight of derivative cliché, lack of tension, cheap scares and utter lack of artistic merit. When such high hopes are dashed as soon as a film’s title sequence has ended and the film begins proper, you know you’re in for a rough ride. And not in a good way.

9 comments:

I totally agree with you about the opening, but I also have some love for the rest of the movie. It isn't Halloween from '78, but its own entity. Some other creepy moments here and there, and while it doesn't have the same bang as the original, it is good, to me.

Don't get me wrong, Wings! I said it wasn't a good film, but I didn't say I didn't like it! Aside from part 2 (which was also a big disappointment) and H20, I feel the Halloween sequels are amongst the most devoid of merit as far as horror sequels go. ;)

Ahh! I love love love the opening credits in this film; I can't believe you are mentioning them here. When I went to see this at the theater (*cough cough, I'm old, cough cough*) I was so psyched when it started, thought I was in for a real treat. Um...

Cody do you have a link for your review? Was just over at It All Happens in the Dark but couldn't find your review of Halloween 4... Maybe I'm just being lame? Or am too drunk to see it. Either way: can't find it!

Behind the Couch is a term used as a humorous metaphor to describe the actions that a state of fear may drive someone to: for example, a young child hiding 'behind the couch' when watching a scary film or TV show. Its use generally evokes a feeling of nostalgia: safe fear in a domestic setting.

In the case of this blog, it also denotes the reviewer hiding behind the couch in shame, due to the huge amount of trashy horror films he watches...

'The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.'

H.P. Lovecraft

'Like one, that on a lonesome roadDoth walk in fear and dread,And having once turned round, walks on, And turns no more his head; Because he knows a frightful fiend Doth close behind him tread.'

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

'A shudder through the silence creptAnd death athwart the noonlight swept…Graves closed round my path of life,The beautiful had fled;Pale shadows wandered by my side,And whispered of the dead.'

Sarah Helen Whitman

'We make up horrors to help us cope with the real ones.'

Stephen King

'Human beings are the only living creatures endowed with a full awareness of their own mortality.'

Alex Lickerman, Buddhist Physician

'A house is never still in darkness to those who listen intently; there is a whispering in distant chambers, an unearthly hand presses the snib of the window, the latch rises. Ghosts were created when the first man awoke in the night.'